Database Seeding and Relationships using LARAVEL

Hi Fellas, In this blog, we'll walk through

1. How to create a table ( Migration ) and Model
2. Creating relationships between models ( Ex Library has_many Books ).
3. Seeding the database using the faker() library.

Pre-requisite:

1. PHP any version ( LTS is recommended )
2. Mysql ( for Database )
3. laravel

Let's get started !!!! whoooooeeeeeeee!!!! 🚀🚀

STEP 1️⃣:

• Let's create a new laravel project using the laravel new demo here demo is my project name

STEP 2️⃣:

• Change your current directory to the project created using the above command, in my case, it is cd demo. Ignore this line for professionals 😜
• Make sure you fill in the details in the .env file
• Create a database called demo by create database demo;

DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=demo ( create a database in MySQL called demo )
DB_USERNAME=your_mysql_usernamae
DB_PASSWORD=your_mysql_password 

• let's create two models 1. Ĺibrary 2. Books by php artisan make:model Library -m, php artisan make:model Book -m
• -m creates the migration file where we can include the details about columns of the tables library and books
• By executing the above commands laravel will create two files in the model and database directory.

database/migrations/2022_10_25_185618_create_books_table.php
database/migrations/2022_10_25_185530_create_libraries_table.php
app/Models/Book.php
app/Models/Library.php

STEP 3️⃣:

• Before running the migration command let's tell the laravel what are the columns that will be present in the model's created above
• Let's get our hands dirty by writing some code now. Add the below code in the public function up() method in the library and book the migration file

// code to be added to the library migration file 
 Schema::create('libraries', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();
            $table->timestamps();
            $table->string('name');
            $table->string('librarian_name');
            $table->datetime('opening_time');
            $table->datetime('closing_time');
        });
// code to be added to the book migration file

 Schema::create('books', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();
            $table->integer('library_id');
            $table->timestamps();
            $table->string('name');
            $table->string('author_name');
        });

STEP 4️⃣:

• let's create or migrate the columns into the database by running php artisan migrate. You should see a log like this

STEP 5️⃣:

• Let us define the has_many relationship in the models ( Ex: Library has many books )

class Library extends Model
{
    use HasFactory;

    public function books()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Book::class);
    }
}

STEP 6️⃣:

• Let's create and load the database with some dummy data by using seeder files.
• Create a factory file using php artisan make:factory BookFactory --model=Book
• Create a seeder file by php artisan make:seeder BookSeeder
• Add the following code to BookFactory.php file

<?php

namespace Database\Factories;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\Factory;

/**
 * @extends \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\Factory<\App\Models\Book>
 */
class BookFactory extends Factory
{
    /**
     * Define the model's default state.
     *
     * @return array<string, mixed>
     */
    public function definition()
    {
        return [
            'library_id' => $this->faker->randomDigit(),
            'name' => $this->faker->text(),
            'author_name' => $this->faker->text(),
        ];
    }
}

• Add the following code to BookSeeder.php to create 10 records in the Books table

namespace Database\Seeders;

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;
use \App\Models\Book;

class BookSeeder extends Seeder
{
    /**
     * Run the database seeds.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function run()
    {
        Book::factory(10)->create();
    }
}

• Finally Run the seeding command php artisan db:seed --class=BookSeeder

Similarly, we can write both Seeder and Factory files for the library model too.

We can verify the data by running the select query from our database select * from books

Entire code is present in GitHub repo: https://github.com/SamalaSumanth0262/LARAVEL-Relationships-Seeding, Feel free to raise PR or contribute. we can add a hacktober-fest label too if required so that it counts towards the contribution

For those who don't know hacktober fest, No worries I was one of them 😜 https://hacktoberfest.com/

Please feel free to comment or any suggestions are welcome. Cheers !!!!!!!

You can get in touch with me on
Website🧑🏻‍💻: https://sumanthsamala.netlify.app/
Linkedin🗒: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samala-sumanth-82431161/
GitHub: https://github.com/SamalaSumanth0262
twitter: https://twitter.com/sumanth0262